Campaign of Danture

Campaign of Danture 1594
Date 5 July 1594 – 9 October 1594 Location Danture, Kingdom of Kandy 07°16′55″N 80°32′27″E / 7.28194°N 80.54083°E / 7.28194; 80.54083Coordinates: 07°16′55″N 80°32′27″E / 7.28194°N 80.54083°E / 7.28194; 80.54083 Result Decisive Kandyan victory
Belligerents
Portuguese Empire Lascarins (local soldiers on the Portuguese side)	Kingdom of Kandy
Commanders and leaders
Pedro Lopes de Sousa † Francisco da Silva D. Gastão Coutinho † Francisco de Brito † Jayavira Bandara Mudali †	Vimaladharmasuriya I of Kandy Ekanayaka Mudali
Strength
On 5 July 1594 Total 20,000 1000 Portuguese (estimates range from 800 to 1474) 15,400 Lascarins an unknown number of Badaga mercenaries and coolies 47 war elephants By 8 October 1594 368 Portuguese a few Lascarins	On 5 July 1594 10,000 men By 8 October 1594 10,000–20,000 men (estimates range up to 40,000)
Casualties and losses
A handful of Portuguese and lascarins escaped back to Colombo; 93 Portuguese were captured; the majority of the Lascarins deserted; the rest of the army were killed	Exact figures not known

Portuguese Empire

On 5 July 1594
Total 20,000

By 8 October 1594

On 5 July 1594
10,000 men

The Danture campaign comprised a series of encounters between the Portuguese and the Kingdom of Kandy in 1594, part of the Sinhalese–Portuguese War. It is considered a turning point in the indigenous resistance to Portuguese expansion. For the first time in Sri Lanka a Portuguese army was completely annihilated, when they were just a fraction away from the total conquest of the island. A 20,000-strong Portuguese army, led by Governor Pedro Lopes de Sousa, invaded Kandy on 5 July 1594. After three months, severely depleted by guerilla warfare and mass desertions, what remained of the Portuguese army was completely annihilated at Danture by the Kandyans under King Vimaladharmasuriya. With this victory, the Kingdom of Kandy emerged as a major military power; it was to retain its independence until 1815, against Portuguese, Dutch, and British armies.

By the time of King Mayadunne’s death in 1581, Sitawaka controlled almost all the Sri Lankan lowlands except for a narrow stretch of territory along the west coast, which was ruled by King Dom João Dharmapala under the protection of the Portuguese. After Mayadunne’s death, his son Tikiri Bandara succeeded to the Sitawaka throne as Rajasinha I of Sitawaka, also known as Sitawaka Rajasinghe.

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